The news of China's new city-turned-ghost town of Qingshuihe in Inner Mongolia--a brand new town meant to boost the nation's economy but which ran out of money before it could be finished--is a painful déjà vu for China after its failed master plan of Ordos which we heard about just last year. Once again, the monstrous consequences of blind economic growth in the name of progress, in what amounts to an ironic pile of monuments to failure; an all-in-one boom-and-bust town reflecting the tragic paradox of our existing economic system and China's relentless race to the top. (Above photo © April Rabkin/Foreign Policy)

A view of the new town in Qingshuihe county | From BBC

Located just a few hundred kilometers from each other (see map below) , both cities were built from scratch as a means of attracting investment and kick-starting the local economy. In both cases, the cities were planned away from the old city centers: the new district of Kangbashi, 25k from the old town of Ordos, was said to have been chosen for its proximity to rivers and to the nearby mining town of Yulin; Qingshuihe was erected 20km north of its center, closer to the regional capital Hohhot with the aim of targeting potential investors.

This sequence of photos taken on April 12 shows the unfinished buildings on the hillside in Wangguiyao town of Qingshuihe county. © Ren Junchuan / Xinhua | From China Daily

Rich City, Poor City

While Ordos had become one the richest cities in the country thanks to its wealth of coal and natural gas reserves, Qingshuihe was and still is one of the poorest. Ordos--rather than sit back and watch newly-wealthy locals put their money elsewhere--couldn't resist getting richer, while places like Qingshuihe, naturally, wanted a piece of the cake. In China, where the emphasis on progress largely disregards socio-environmental factors and makes no distinction between quality and quantity, it is no wonder that the answer to such disparate situations would essentially be the same. Buy up new land, build like crazy, sell. Playing the real estate game is still the way to make a quick buck, and the debate still continues amongst economists whether China's frantically growing bubble is destined to go out with a bang.

A series of images of Ordos' new Kangbashi district taken by Michael Christopher Brown for TIME:

Construction continues on the rise despite the vacancy of properties

Properties in the Kangbashi district have been bought mainly by investors, the majority of homes remain empty.

Ordos Museum under construction. © Michael Christopher Brown for TIME

Workers outside the public library.

A lone worker amidst finished and unfinished apartment bulidings.

Aftermath

Meanwhile, these new ghost towns are the scars already being left behind. Ordos, which ironically enough means "palaces" in the Mongolian language, is a sprawling cemetery of architectural marvels, a lavish public-works project that for months, glazed the pages of design magazines with villa projects commissioned by the Chinese goverment to the likes of international architects such as Sou Fujimoto, Alejandro Aravena, and Rojkind Architects. Archdaily even dedicated a special section to it, in which you can still browse through three roundups of the "1000sqm villas designed by 100 hip architects in 100 days, selected by Herzog & de Meuron over a master plan developed and curated by Ai Wei Wei (FAKE Design)."  Others, of course, were skeptical from the start.

The Al Jazeera report that broke the news of Ordos to the world:

In poverty-stricken Qingshuihe, the consequences are an open wound. As construction came to a halt in 2007 (two years after it began), barren building sites, empty houses, and unfinished luxury hotels are an irreverant testament to locals of how millions of dollars were wasted on a speculative whim rather than investing it in the existing town, in dire need of social welfare reforms and infrastructure improvement. The project is said to have to have set back the old town some 10 years, not to mention leaving hundreds of construction workers and building employees bereft of paychecks and out in the cold.

An unfinished hotel project in Qingshuihe | From BBC

Construction materials lay scattered around an unfinished hotel. A slogan on the wall of a work shed says, "Eliminate hidden danger and construct properly." Photo: © Li Xiaosh | From Global Times

Zhou Xiaozheng, a sociology professor at Beijing-based Renmin University of China, said: "Many officials only pay attention to creating a good image for the government. However, without feasible plans, such projects waste both manpower and material resources. What's worse, many officials remain unaware of it."

Why are they empty? The distance at which they lie from the old centers is a key factor that has discouraged people from moving there. Of course its not just about physical distance. Expecting entire communities to uproot themselves from their social, historical and cultural context from one moment to the next is not only unrealistic, it's unsustainable.

Unsustainable progress

Coincidentally here in Barcelona just last week at a BIAarch lecture, invited Chinese architect and director of MIT's architecture department Yung Ho Chang indirectly touched on this issue as he spoke on the difficulties of pushing sustainable architecture practices in booming China. In a constant balancing act between conservationists, developers and city councils, he finds a middle ground exists where he can stay afloat as an architect and use that to implement whatever sustainable measures he can in both small and large-scale projects. Even so, and despite being the head of one of China's foremost firms (Atelier FCJZ), he is confronted with many obstacles while practicing in his native country, where any concerns for genuine and long-term sustainability are sidelined by the pursuit of profit.

Yung Ho Chang reflects on the state of urbanism in China | BIArch on flickr

And that kind of mentality and economic machine is what produces the Ordoses and Qingshuihes of China today. Who will pay? What will happen to these concrete wastelands? How many more are there?

In a Wall Street Journal article earlier this month, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch economist Ting Lu said of Ordos:

“We found a brand new but empty city, but reporters could easily distort the overall picture, exaggerate problems, and overly generalize findings. In fact, Ordos is very unique – and it is quite misleading to assume what happens in Ordos could happen in other parts of China.”

I truly hope he's right, but I get the feeling he just spoke too soon.